bath bomb boot camp

How To Naturally Color Handmade Soap

​With natural colorants you may not get the bold, vibrant hues to will see in commercial soaps, but you will have the knowledge that your soap’s color (while muted) comes from safe, all-natural sources. To color your handmade soap without turning to chemicals, try any of the ingredients listed below.

Calendula or beetroot powder: both will produce yellow coloring, though beetroot will give a squash yellow color while calendula will produce yellow streaks.

Cocoa powder: gives a rich, chocolate brown color to soap.

Instant coffee: depending on the grind, it will turn soap brown or black and is invigorating and exfoliating to skin.

Moroccan red clay: gives soap a brick red color while also drawing impurities out of the skin.

Spinach and avocado: pureed into soap, these tasty greens will produce a muted, pale green color.

Blue cornmeal: will give soap a pale, purplish-blue hue and is also exfoliating.

What won’t work?

While it may seem that fruit and vegetables would be a great source for natural color, we find that lye has a tendency to play some harsh tricks on food sourced colorants. Lye has a tendency to change ingredients that have been exposed to it for some time. For example, lavender will initially make a purplish colored bar but over time the lye will turn it green and then brown.

If you are going to try using veggies and fruits as colorants, be sure to add them after the mixture has cooled when you would usually add your essential oils and fragrances.

There are many more popular colorants, including turmeric, henna and rose hips that will also tint your soap. We encourage experimenting!

As always, keep track of what you use and what happens. When experimenting with natural colorants it may take some trial and error and you’ll want to remember exactly how much of what you used and when you added it to produce certain colors.

5 Melt And Pour Soap Recipes

​From the amazing scent combos, to the fun mix of science and art, to the great feeling of making something from scratch and watching it take shape, we love everything about making our own soap! We also love sharing great recipes. If you’re looking for a few soap recipes to spark your creativity, check out these five recipes that we absolutely love.

Herby Citrus Soap

Looking for soap with zing? Try this amazing recipe that combines fresh mint and lemon to make an herbaceous, refreshing scent. Once your glycerin is melted, you’ll need about one tablespoon of additives per cup. Puree your herbs and squeeze out the excess water to prep it for addition and zest your lemon for that great, clean scent!

Holiday Spice Soap

We love how gorgeous these soaps are! Using pure glycerin, dried flowers and herbs and essential oils, these soaps look like little clear gems with suspended greenery embedded within.Add about 8 to 10 drops of essential oil per ounce of soap and stir slowly to prevent bubbles. Add the desired petals, leaves or herbs into your molds and then carefully pour the melted glycerin over it. Let sit for an hour and then pop out!Consider using juniper berry, rosemary, dried citrus peels or hibiscus as your additives.

Lavender and Beeswax Soap

This simple blend of glycerin, lavender essential oil and grated beeswax is beautiful and nourishing! Just heat four ounces of glycerin to melting point, add a teaspoon of grated beeswax and stir until well blended. Take off the heat, allow it to cool and then add 10 drops of lavender essential oil (more or less to your liking). If you’d like your soap to be mildly lavender in color as well, add one drop of purple food coloring and mix well.

Double Citrus Soap

There’s nothing better than the pop of citrus in the morning (or the afternoon… or the evening). We figured, if one citrus smell is good, than why not two? For this recipe, you’ll combine grapefruit essential oil with tangerine essential oil and melted Shea butter to get a rich, fresh-smelling soap! Be sure to stir the mixture constantly as it cools so that the butter does not separate.

Balsam and Basil SoapThis is a great scent for the guy in your life or anyone who likes a deeper, woodsier smell. Balsam essential oil and basil essential are mixed in a base of cocoa butter, Vitamin E and glycerin to make a nourishing soap bar. Melt your glycerin and cocoa butter together in a double boiler and be sure not to let it get hotter than 160 Fahrenheit, after melted add your Vitamin E. Only add the essential oils when your base has cooled.